I pose this question because all of my guns(bought in new condition) are still in what I would think around 95% condition. Even my 30 year old Wingmaster that was my duck gun for years is in this condition. I probably don't hunt as hard as some here, but I've been at it for 41 years.

I have a friend who has his father's Browning 20ga o/u and it is near loose and only has about 1/3 its' bluing left and he has a Wingmaster that looks like it was used to literally beat the brush. I've hunted grouse with him (the only game he hunts) and he walks fast, but unless wind erosion is a factor I can't see how the guns got in that shape? My own father's guns are in the same condition as mine except for a scar on his win. 94 from a fall and a patch of wood putty over the screw hole in the forearm on his Ithaca 37.

I suppose I have had too many guns to get one warn to where I'd like it? I often say I'd love to wear one out shooting/hunting it!

Would any of you, who know how to post pictures, care to post your well worn guns? I'm talking about the ones you put the wear on. I would really like to admire them!

Thanks,

Kurt

I think most guns got worn out by what was done to them when they were not being shot.

Accidents apart (i.e. dropping it off a bridge /running it over with a tractor etc) I think if you take agun out, shoot with it using appropriate ammo, clean it, oil it and store it properly, it will look good for a long time.

The Webley 700 that was my father's from new and mine from the age of 13 looks pretty much as it did when I inherited it in 1981. My Purdey has changed not at all in my five years of ownership, despite constant use.

My well worn guns still look good, also probably around 95% and this includes an AYA that I have shot for the last 30ish years.

I do look after them though, and as soon as anything requires attention it is done - no exceptions. As a result I have never, ever, had a gun fail on me, wherby it couldn't be used.

I do also have several guns though so the wear is also spread out amongst them - which is a good thing considering the amount of use they get. One of my guns a 13 year old FN Browning Superposed that I used for driven game shooting, that fired 35K shells still looked like new

Jonty

I had Classic Doubles 201 that has seen some hard use on the marsh. It had plenty of scratches on that Winchesterish fleur de lis checkered stock. I had both factory and 'Undertaker' extended std inv. tubes to use in that one. It's nearly 8lb weight came in handy when shooting 3" loads. :rolleyes:
No pics it's been nixed for a .375H&H when I hanged up my duck/goose calls so to speak.

Good question
I use my pre-1900 guns when I can take care of them. My target guns are carried and returned to the case after shooting
I use my auto's, clunkers, and etc. when I can't or think I can not. In the marine world we have certain guns we call throwaway guns, we throw them overboard before we go into Canada.
I am not a happy camper if the good guns get used in the wrong place.

A gun gets 'seasoned' by use, but the patina gained is not, IMO, a bad thing.

My main bird gun - my Fox 16 - has been used hard for about 15 years. It is well cared for - cleaned after every use, kept in a hard case locked in a safe, lubed before each assembly for use, etc. The CC is wearing off the bottom of the action bar, the blue is polished off the guard tang, and the rust blue is getting thin on tha barrels where my hand is placed when I carry it. The stock has a couple fo tiny nicks. Not bad for a chukar gun, really.

It fits and shoots so well for me that it is still beautiful.

My observation is the condition of the gun is related to the person that owns it. Mine are seldom ever hurt by hard use while I have an ex- friend that needs a new one every couple of years because he destroys them. I have seen him lever brush piles with the barrel of a Browning A5, bend the barrel of a Franci super light 20ga automatic over a rabbits shoulders, lift barb wire fence strands with a Win Model 88 and throw all of them in the bed of a pickup truck full of assorted landscaping tools without a case. Keeps what was a perfect Win Model 1890 .22 under his truck seat w/o case. Worst of all, someone gave him an early Griffin $ Howe Springfield sporter in pristine condition - trashed in two deer seasons. Two wives left him, kids won't talk to him, his Springers have bitten him repeatedly and the local police keep a reserved parking space for him. Just never got past age 15 and he is now 66. Should have been named Earl. (Apologies and condolences to responsible individuals named Earl.)

Jerry, what a hoot! great writing ! That's one unique friend you have; I love the line about the Springers biting him repeatedly. what a chump, ex-friend you say? I met a "friend of a friend" in our duck camp one year, who although a crack shot and an Orvis wingshooting instructor, also believed that guns should not have cases and should always be "thrown" into the back of trucks whenever possible. However he knocked ducks out of the sky that I could barely even see.

I have one regular shooting friend whose guns are worn and loose because he flops them open and closed. He's an engineer so I can't tell him anything. I've never owned a gun that seriously deteriorated while I owned it. I heartily agree that it's not shooting that wears most guns out. JL

Poor. If I knew how to post pics I would. I have no home page or webspace.

Gentleman. I'm a clumsy man and my duck/goose gun shows it. 12 ga SxS naturally. One of those I Talian jobs. I don't call them nicks and such. I call all of those marks scars. I'll hunt 40-50 days a year. It's seen the bottom of rivers, creeks, lakes, swamps and anything else you would call something that holds ducks. It's gone for long rough rides down creek banks with me along side into fast water. Those are never intentional. It's been a boat oar a pole to keep off the lock walls a third leg walking stick in rocky streams. It sits in the barn between hunts with only a WD 40 wash to protect it and some grease wiped from the tractors PTO on the hinge before leaving. It's fully cleaned, lubed and polished up after every waterfowl season, whether it needs it or not. It's name is Deadon and the dogs name is Abbey. And I love'em both. The gun rides in the bed rolled up in canvas but Abbey rides up front with me and the doughnuts.

I am enjoying all the respones greatly!

I have always been somewhat torn over the thought that I have never gotten all the good out of my shotguns. I think that had I been wiser and wealthier earlier on I would have bought a good strong double gun and used it for all my small game hunting and now that I am older would be able to look into its' wear and read the stories of my hunts on water and in woods. My deer rifle has a bit of this, in that I bought it at age eighteen and have used it every year since. That 30.06 is still about 80%, though it has a 3" long mystery scratch the length of the receiver, a noticable ding on the forend cap and grip cap and just a bit of removed rust by the front sight. Other wise the home done cut butt and pad installation, the attempt at moving the holes in the scope base and the leather boot lace holding the sling together, are the only mars. I just acquired to many shotguns to have one show the use of them all. Oh well! I guess I can't have all that cake and eat all of it too? To bad I'm getting so old.

Hal, I can drag a deer but, apparantly not a mouse? I can't post pictures either.

Kurt

Except for a few years between the mandating of steel and the advent of Bismuth, I've used this 1928-vintage 12-gauge 3-inch Super-Fox since I was 17, in 1963. Since I've owned it, it has been to the bottom twice. However, both times were in fresh water. That is probably how it has survived so well is that in the 43 years I've had it, I've probably only used it near salt water half a dozen times.

The bluing on my Bernardelli Hemingway 20's barrels has been worn thin just ahead of the forend, where my hand grips them. Other than that, the gun's in very good condition.

Researcher: That Super-Fox is just great. You're a lucky man to have accompanied it on hunts for so many years. What's it weigh and how is it choked? What do you feed it? How many hundreds of ducks is it responsible for? TT

There should never be a such a thing as a pristine rook rifle - and my Daniel Fraser isn't.
Buggered-up here, buggered-up there!
...but still a nice piece.

I've had my Browning BPS for about 20 years now, for almost 10 years it was my only gun, I have 4 different barrels for it, a 24" Upland, a 28" waterfowl/target, a rifled barrel for deer slugs and a iron sighted turkey barrel.

It has some bluing worn off in the right places, some scratches and chips in the wood, but themost obvious scratches is the blue are from my meathanded attempts early on mounting a B-Square side scope mount before I got the deer barrel.

My next two guns were also Brownings, a BLR in .308 and a A-Bolt 22. They all have that Browning high gloss finish which chips very easily and shows marks.

Once I got past that stage, most everything else I own was old when I got it, I try not to make them older. Some wood scratches, blue scrathes, etc. haven't dented a barrel yet.

Of course I bought some old shooters that were mechanically fine but looked their age. A Savage 99 that was badlt refinished but I shoot amazingly well comes to mind.

I agree, most of the bad stuff doesn't happen in the field.

Rob

I hunt mainly grouse and jump-shoot ducks with the same guns(but NOT the same shells). The SXS doubles I use seem to have lost bluing on the very edges of their ribs from "cutting the brush," otherwise they are in the condition I acquired them (none new). The shotguns I use for called coyotes and turkeys (also SXS doubles) don't get any noticeable wear. I keep my doubles in cases even in the safe, let alone in the truck.

In spite of many falls and crashes in ice and mud, I've never seriously hurt a gun (wish I could say the same for my sorry back). I once stepped off a cliff in a heavy fog in the Snake River brakes and remember thinking as I was bouncing off rocks and tree limbs that I hoped my LC Smith 16 wouldn't get dinged (it didn't). The only gun I've ever broken was slipping on ice while out for an "armed hike" two Februarys ago in the woods here in NY. Snapped the stock of my Win 37 .410 single right thru at the wrist (better than MY wrist....). So I screwed on another stock and counted my blessings.

I think more guns get damaged in and around the truck at the end of the day when people are tired than any other time--I've seen more guns hit the deck then than any other time. I suspect that's when most ADs happen, too.

BTW, I always wondered where that expression "She's such a fox!" came from. Looking at Researcher's Super, I have a better understanding. Ain't Gringlish wonderful?

My Super was made in 1928 and has 32-inch Chromox tubes bored just as Askins describes in his 1929 Modern Shotguns and Loads, but my gun has a couple thou more choke -- .051" left and .053" right. It weighs 8 pounds 9.4 ounces. It was back to Savage and got a second set of 3-inch chambered barrels 28-inches long with normal .729" bores that are choked .017" left and .012" right. They are quite deadly over decoys.

When I first got the gun I ran quite a few patterns and found that the 32-inch barrels would go 85% with #4 or #5 1 5/8 ounce lead loads of the day. I tried some 1 7/8 ounce loads and got great holes in the patterns, so I've stuck with 1 5/8 ounce. When I got a letter on the gun, Roe included a photocopy of the card. The pattern counts on the back of the card show they got 79% with 1 3/8 ounces of #4 at the factory in 1928.

In that in October 2004 someone made off with my duck boat, a 12-ft cedar rowboat my Father built in 1939 that I literally grew up in, and that I bought a little English Setter in the spring of 2005, I don't know that I'll be doing much waterfowl hunting. These pictures were taken 2 years to the day before the boat was stolen. Those are the 28-inch barrels with the Pintail.

Researcher, that pic of your little boat on the (Columbia?) shore says it all. I can understand your losing enthusiasm when that boat represented your lifetime of waterfowling pursuits. Don't give up though, there's still many more great memories ahead.

Your superfox is beautiful.

Used a 1973 Browning Citori in the Texas salt marsh till 1980, usually at least one day a week, all season long. Hosed it down and then dried it with hot air and oiled it at the end of each day. Only had one small, easily fixed problem in all those years. The Bluing on the trigger bow and lock box is worn at all edges and the glossy Browning stock finish was dulled and redone with TruOil.

After many, many hundreds of waterfowl loads and thousands of trap loads that Citori is still tight and hardly looks like it was used much.

Ditto for a Carl Steigele O/U that was my sole grouse and turkey gun for 15 years, hunted every weekend with it all through the long grouse seasons.

Current hunting double is a 1921 vintage Husqvarna M51 hammer double in 16 gauge. The heavily dinged stock and foreend were restored and net checkering redone. Rust on barrels was removed with OOOO steel wool but the heavily faded bluing remains. Bores are extensively pitted from decades of corrosive ammo and inadequate or no cleaning, but patterns are exellent and POIs for both barrels are right on. That gun has now had many, many hundreds of 24 gram loads fired through it at clays and has been my duck, desert quail, bandtail, etc. bird gun the last three seasons. It hardly looks like it has been used after the redo of exterior.

All these guns stay in cloth sheaths, in hard cases when not being used. They were all cleaned after each day's hunting. All have been totally soaked multiple times but, dried and oiled after each soaking. ALL of the interior stock wood surfaces have been coated with polyuethane.

Niklas

The picture of my boat was taken on the Winchester Waste Waterway in Grant County. The route runoff irrigation from the Columbia Basin Project takes back to the River. Mr. Roosevelt's little project in Eastern Washington had a side benefit of establishing a waterfowl flyway where only a trickle had existed prior to the 1930s. We had some fabulous hunting there in the 1960s and 70s, but clean farming practices have reduced the Pheasant populations to a small fraction of what they were 30 to 45 years ago.